Better Cities:Azura and Meridia

Book Information Azura and Meridia
ID	xx179360
	2		1.0
Locations
Found in the following locations: Available for sale in Osslas' Scripts In the Anvil Rangers Guild Hall
Note
This Elder Scrolls Book Club selection was written by Khenti Amentiu

Azura and Meridia

by Anonymous priest of Azura

The story of a wager between Azura and Meridia

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Azura looked upon the suffering and strife of Coldharbour with pity, so she taught her priestess the secrets of traveling to Oblivion so that she might bring comfort to those lost souls. The priestess arrived in Coldharbour and slew a thousand of Molag Bal's kin, and gave comfort and healing and wisdom to the Daedra's people. Feeling confidant, Azura decided that she should take action against the Vampires of Tamriel, so she created a room in Oblivion so that she may consort with Meridia, the Prince of Infinite Energy.

Azura and Meridia began to discuss the problems with Vampires. Azura pitied the pain that unwilling Vampires faced every day and the pain they faced knowing that they must hurt others to relieve that pain. Meridia hated the undead and wished to see them all destroyed. However, Molag Bal came into the room by stealth and planted a rose. When Azura saw the rose, she swore that it was violet like the beauty of the night's sky, but when Meridia saw the rose, she swore that it was red like living blood. Thus the Daedra were distracted from their council, but in their wisdom they decided to make a wager: Whoever was the most beautiful would be able to discern the true color of the rose.

So they descended to Tamriel to test their beauty, and the god of beauty let them pass in their purity. Meridia appeared before the most famous hero in all the land as a beautiful naked woman, and the man made love to her and was killed for his heresy. "My beauty is such that he sacrificed his name for my sake," Meridia said, but Azura knew that it was of no consequence that a man be attracted to a woman, so she appeared before the most humble priestess of the god of beauty as a beautiful naked woman and recited poetry of heart and feeling. The woman fell in love with the Daedra and made love to her, and swore that she was the most beautiful. Thus, the god of beauty banished Azura and Meridia back to Oblivion.

Meridia knew she had been beaten, so she let Azura name the color of the rose. Azura called it Burgundy, the color of a woman's sacred beauty and the color of the first rose, and henceforth the queen of the night sky also became known as the mother of the rose. As for the priestess of the god of beauty, she was almost put to death for her heresy, but Azura saved her and brought her to live in Oblivion. She and the woman who brought comfort to the people of Coldharbour became Azura's first lover priestesses, and they descended to Tamriel to deal with the Vampires while Meridia became distracted with revenge on the god of beauty.

Editor's Note: Some people believe that Meridia saved the Hero and he later became Umaril the Unfeathered, though there is no indication that this is so in the original text. It was written by a priest of Azura, so it is bound to be subjective in a way that causes Meridia to bring about or at least fail to prevent the Hero's death. Others say that Sanguine was so impressed with Molag Bal's tricks that he brought the rose to Tamriel as a symbol of the two Daedra and their affairs. As with most legends, it is up to the reader to decide.